My Genealogy Hound

J. G. Woods is the present efficient editor of the Democratic Guard, which was established at Quitman, Cleburne County, Ark., in 1887, but moved to Malvern on February 1, 1889. It was established by Mr. Woods, who is a native of West Virginia, where he was born (in Lewisburg, Greenbrier County) in the year 1835. In July, 1849, he started overland to California, but did not arrive until the following summer, having to spend the winter at Salt Lake City, on account of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. He remained in California a short time, when he returned to Richmond, Va., there working on the National American, and also on the Richmond Despatch Daily, until 1857, when he came to Rockport, Hot Spring County. In 1861 he enlisted in Company F, of the Third Arkansas Infantry, under Col. A. G. Rusk, in which he served four years. Mr. Woods was in the battles of Gettysburg, Richmond, Suffolk campaign, Sharpsburg, and a number of others. He was slightly wounded by a piece of shell, but not seriously. After the war he returned to Hot Spring County, and in the spring of 1866 went to Texas, walking all of the way from Rockport to Fort Worth, Tex., where he engaged at cattle driving one year, and then joined the Texas Rangers to fight Indians, in which he served two years. In 1868 he married Miss Sallie E. Slocum, a native of West Virginia. He first settled near Fort Worth, on a farm, and in 1869 worked on the Fort Worth Chronicle, the first paper established at that, place. In 1873, Mr. Woods moved to Cleburne, Tex., where he remained one year, engaged on the Cleburne Chronicle. He then went to Ennis, Tex., and established the Ennis Argus, which he conducted a year, and then sold out and went to Peoria, Tex., starting the Hill County Record, when he again sold out and bought the Bosque County Herald, and published that six years. At the end of that period, going to Collin County, Tex., he started the Piano Herald, in 1880, and was burned out the same year. He then became the business manager of the Tribune Publishing Company at Decatur, Tex., and at the same time was correspondent for the Galveston and Dallas News. While there he became interested in farming and fruit raising. In 1889 he came to Hot Spring County, and established his present paper. Mr. Woods has a family of three children: Lee, John and Daisy. Mrs. Woods is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Wood’s life has always been one of activity and usefulness, and he has ever taken an active interest in the community in which he lives. Careful and painstaking in the publication of his journal, he has gained a creditable circulation and deserves the patronage accorded him. In a word, his paper is just what is needed here.